The EU and European Political Systems

Europeanisation
1. 1986 Single European Act
2. Focuses on the processes and outcomes of the EU, not its' existence
3. It's not integration, convergence or harmonisation
  1. As it can lead to inertia, non-compliance, absorption or transformation by Member States
4. It is the adaptation of natonal institutions, the impact on national politics, identifying shifts in cognition, identity and discourse, and the spreading of values
5. Bjorn Hettne: "the process towards increasing economic and political homogeneity and, consequently, the elimination of extremes in terms of economic policies or political systems..."
6. Ladrech (1994): "an incremental process re-orientating the direction and shape of politics to the degree EC political and economic degree EC political and economic dynamics become part of the organisational logic of national politics and policy-making"
7. Goldsmith (2003): "the process by which increasing py numbers of policy areas have taken on a European (EU) dimension as the process of European Integration has the process of European Integration has developed"
8. 3 domains: Ideational, Organisational, Public Policy
  1. Organisational: the Brussels effect, emergence of multi-level governance, the Treaty effect
9. Delanty and Rumford (2005): "that there is no underlying identity or firmly entrenched set of values that prevents Europe from adopting a more inclusive identity"
Flockhart (2010) on the EU: The most significant difference between this and earlier periods of Europeanization lies in the structures and institutionalized processes of policy formulation that are self reflexive, detailed, and expansive in scope
Neo-functionalism
1. Created by Haas and Lindberg in the late 1950s-early 1960s
2. Hard to define: the dependent variable problem (what is to be the end state of integration?)
  1. Haas: the end point "is a new political community, superimposed over the pre-existing ones"
  2. Lindberg: no end point, the process is in constant flux
3. Attempts to be a general universal theory (similar to realism for IR)
4. 5 assumptions: (1) Rational and self-interested actors (2) Institutions can progressively escape from their creators (3) Primacy of incremental decision-making (4) Rejects zero-sum realist idea, positive-sum instead, common interests (5) Economic interdependence leads, inexorably, towards further integration
5. Spillover: (1) the occurrence of integration (2) quantifying integration as being increased via economic interdepedence
Federalism
1. Althusius is seen as the 'father of modern federalism' after writing his work the 'Politics' in 1603
2. It's aim is for union, but not unity - integration not assimilation
3. Seen as both unifying and a means to maintain diversity
4. At its' core is the principle of assocation
Liberal Intergovernmentalism
1. Moravcsik coined the term in the 1990s
  1. Argued federalism was merely a sub-form of neofunctionalism
2. EU politics is dominated by Member States, in particular the 'big' Member States (Germany, France and Britain)
3. vs. Supranationalism - the ECJ, Commission and EP all have varying powers with their own interests and powers
History of the EU
1. 2004: 10 new Member States joined (including Poland, Hungary, Czech Rep, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Malta and Cyprus)
2. 1973: UK, Denmark and Ireland join
3. 1986: Spain and Portugal
4. 1995: Finland, Sweden and Austria
The budget of the EU is only 1% of the total GDP of the Member States
The EU is not a state in the Weberian meaning of the word - it does not have a 'monopoly on the legitimate use of coercion'

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The EU and European Political Systems

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